Automatic postage metering systems are known. Such systems comprise a scale for determining the weight of an item to be mailed, a system processor for determining the applicable postage value in accordance with that weight and a postage meter operatively associated with the processor which is set with the applicable postage value and prints corresponding indicia on the item to be mailed. In more sophisticated applications, the operator of such a system may have a keyboard to enter other information to be used in determining the applicable postage value into the system. Thus, the operator may enter information relating to destination, class of service and/or special fees into the system and the system processor will determine the applicable postage value in accordance with the entered information and the weight of the item to be mailed.
Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,325 to Dlugos et al. entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPUTING DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE which issued Aug. 25, 1981. The system disclosed in this patent is capable of determining and imprinting postage values for domestic and foreign mail, both surface and air, as well as private carrier rates. A similar system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,440 to Crowley et al. entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMPUTING SPECIAL FEES IN A PARCEL POSTAGE METERING SYSTEM which issued Apr. 20, 1982. This system is structurally similar to that disclosed in the Dlugos et al. patent and provides the further ability to include special fees, such as C.O.D., return receipt, etc., in the computed postage value.
These patents represent what applicants believe to be the closest prior art to the subject invention and are hereby incorporated into the present application by reference.
While systems such as those taught in the incorporated patents have proven highly effective and advantageous in environments such as the mailing rooms of large corporations, where large volumes of commercial mail are processed for a single mailer, they would not be suitable for application as "Postal Window Systems". "Postal Window Systems" are postage metering systems that would be installed in post offices and individual mailers would bring one, or a few items, to be mailed and they, or an operator, would use the "Postal Window System" to determine the applicable postage value and imprint the corresponding indicia on the item to be mailed. Brief consideration of the incorporated patents will show that they are unsuitable for such "Postal Window" applications. In particular, this is because the prior art postage metering systems determined an applicable postage value as a single valued function of all information entered into the system. The postage value determined was an aggregate of all the information entered and no itemized breakdown of postage costs was provided, except that certain prior art postage mailing systems briefly displayed only the dollar value of components of the aggregate postage value. A typical such system is described in the copending patent application by the present inventor, Postage Value Determining Scale with Recall and Display of Special Fees, Ser. No. 363,179, filed Mar. 29, 1982. While such aggregate postage values might be acceptable in corporate mailing rooms where experienced operators handle large volumes of items to be mailed for a single corporate mailer and a certain small percentage of errors may be tolerated, they would not be acceptable to individual mailers mailing a small number of items. Thus, while a corporate mailer might tolerate one package in a thousand which was mailed with a wrong special fee, an individual mailer of single items would likely not tolerate an error where, for example, the one item he or she mailed was not mailed special delivery when that was intended. Yet, seeing only an aggregate postage value, they would have no chance to recognize the error, except for the possibility that the erroneous postage value might be recognized as too low. And, of course, the possibility of such errors would greatly increase with systems where the inexperienced individual mailer would act as his or her own operator.
Moreover, because postage metering systems are, in effect, machines for spending money the need for reliability and security is very great. Thus, it is important that in the development of new postage metering systems, such as "Postal Window Systems", tested hardware and software should be used to the greatest extent possible with the fewest modifications possible.
Thus, it is an object of the subject invention to provide a postage metering system which displays an itemized breakdown of the determined postage value.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a postage metering system wherein such a display is provided by a readily separable subsystem which is not closely coupled to the system processor.
It is a still further object of the subject invention to provide a postage metering system which is suitable for use as a "Postal Window System" where numerous individuals mail small numbers of items and it is highly important that each item be mailed correctly.